So I've started the Vanos work UPDATED

Or is it really necessary to remove bottom coolant hose from the water pump, for accessing vanos unit.?
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Yes, on the early M54 engines (2003/4) the lower rad hose has a connector right below the thermostat which fouls the Vanos. You have to unclip the hose (or remove the sensor if that's possible?), and you'll lose about 1/2l of coolant. You can drain the radiator if you want, I just took it as an opportunity to refresh some of my coolant.

question is why not remove the stud then and thread lock it back in when you refit?
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Because there is not enough of the stud showing to get two nuts on it to remove it (except the far left one in my case). One of the other guys on here, Midhurstman, lifted the Vanos forward a bit and undid the studs with a molewrench, but I didn't need to do that.

And yes, IF the studs don't stick out too far (we are talking 1 or 2mm of tolerance here), your Vanos will be as "easy" to remove as mine. As per my post, in any case you can wind the studs in a bit more once the unit is out to make refitting easier.

Here http://www.bimmerfest.com/forums/showth ... p?t=394732 somebody used a crowbar to get more room.
Not sure if it's safe to water pump?
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That's what I did. I had minimal clearance issues, so with a bit of prying against the water pump shaft I could remove my Vanos quite easily. As long as you don't lever against the pulley (plastic) you'll be fine. The bulkhead has six bolts (four on top and one each side behind the washer bottle and the air filter), these need to come out first. By the way, you will never drop anything into the engine, you are working at the front so the only things you may drop are the nuts onto the engine tray, which is no issue.
 
seems a bit of a lottery on how far that stud is in then. hopefully mine is easy :D getting under the car isnt totally impossible but it would be nice to not have to just to get to the engine mounts.
 
Yep you can remove that sensor from bottom hose simple unclip.
I know because i replaced that o-ring , it was leaking.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2UwwqZwEFOc

It is enough if i just remove that sensor and not whole bottom rad hose..
 
I did the Beisan kit plus anti rattle a couple of years ago on our 2003 3.0 and am about to do my E46 this weekend.

If it was not clear from the first post, buy some angled pliers before you begin because its impossible to get those 'caps' out without them. I read many many E46 vanos rebuilds before doing the Z4 but they have much more access as the engine sits higher. I assumed I'd get by somehow but I didn't. I did the same thing blowtorching a long nose pilers to bend it etc etc it was infuriating :evil: :evil:

I levered on the pulley with a very long bar and just made it out passed the studs. I did start to look at stud removal but in the end just levered harder. No dropping engine, pipes or anything. I used a Clarke 24v impact gun on the pistons with the soft vice jaws no problems.

We had only 45,000 miles but the rattle had started....I think it is an autobox issue because you spend a lot of time at 1500-2500rpm and thats a vanos activation point which causes more wear (maybe?:))

When it was done it seemed to quieten the engine quite a lot, more than just removing the rattle...a better idle being part of it but it was noticeably rough prior; only after.

It is one of those no rush jobs to do in the garage with much time, when it is done there is a good level of satisfaction :)
 
While I had the engine all hooked up to INPA today, I thought I would take some readings of the Vanos following the work. I am a bit annoyed I didn't think to get a 'before' reading but nonetheless it all seems to be working ok:

VANOS_zpsdb2f931c.jpg

If anyone has INPA and wants to reference against my readings, that would be useful. I had this running while I was driving and the nominal value on both the inlet and exhaust camshafts (bottom row) always moved quickly to very closely match the row above (which I believe is the requested value from the DME). I understand that a close match between the two, coupled with the actual value responding quickly to the nominal value is a sign of proper function. I believe this is what the upgraded seals have effectively improved.

Hope this is useful...
 
Stratts said:
91k on mine, the outer seals were brittle, the inner ones a bit better. The piston was quite loose and there was hardly any drag so I knew the upgrade would be good.

I did the valve cover gasket as well today, and used RTV sealant in all the right places. Really happy with the result.
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good work stratts. ! i must say you are braver than I, that looked a frustrating job but you must feel well chuffed now its over and feeling more response and smootheness.my m is on 54 k would have it done by my indy but not brave enough to attempt on my own. did you have any quotes to have an indy do it /? i should imagine the main dealers would be a lot of dosh.are the new seals from bmw or someone like besian ? :thumbsup:
 
Mine was done today, picking the car up tomorrow. It was changed along with a long list of items but the quote for Rocker cover gasket and Vanos replacement was £320. I Supplied the Vanos seals and bolts (£20). I've asked for the old seals to be kept so I can see how flat they were.
 
The seals are always flat; they're square teflon (or teflon'ish') seals. That is not a sign of wear.

Actually there is almost no real wear at all.
The underlying normal o-rings that provide the tension (by being rubber) harden over time so the teflon seals loose pressure to the pistonwall.
So there are 2 O rings on top of eachother: the outer ring is a hard square teflon seal (teflon used to prevent wear), and an inner rubber o ring that pushes the teflon ring against the pistonwall so no oil is seeping.
The standard rubber o ring hardens because of the oil& heat, and the rubber rings that beisan (and others) provide are said to be resistant against that. It's a different kind of rubber, more like viton, and the bmw o rings are (I think) standard buna.
If the underlying o-rings are square&completely hardened out, then your vanos was pretty much overdue :lol:
 
mad4slalom said:
good work stratts. ! i must say you are braver than I, that looked a frustrating job but you must feel well chuffed now its over and feeling more response and smootheness.my m is on 54 k would have it done by my indy but not brave enough to attempt on my own. did you have any quotes to have an indy do it /? i should imagine the main dealers would be a lot of dosh.are the new seals from bmw or someone like besian ? :thumbsup:
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It's different if you have an M, not the same process. The Vanos unit is easier to remove but you need to lock the camshafts I think. There's a good write up from a few weeks ago on this forum.
 
GuidoK
Would you like to tell me is it necessary to remove bottom coolant hose to remove Vanos unit from M54 / Z4 ? I am planning to low engine with floor jack to access and remove vanos unit.
It is in my opinion little bit unecessary to drain all coolants if you can wiggle the vanos unit around that coolant sensor.

If some else have fact about this coolant hose... you can answer too.. 8)
 
Hi,
Good job, just curious about the mileage on your car and whether the seals were actually brittle ?

My Z has 74k on it so was thinking about doing this job , getting more performance is always tempting !
 
Yes, they were brittle on mine at 91k. I understand from the various threads that the overwhelming evidence is that the Vanos seals will be less than effective after 30k miles, and they are guaranteed to need doing at your mileage.

There are literally thousands of threads on this subject from E39, E46, etc. owners with the same engine, and the result is always the same.
 
AnttiO said:
GuidoK
Would you like to tell me is it necessary to remove bottom coolant hose to remove Vanos unit from M54 / Z4 ? I am planning to low engine with floor jack to access and remove vanos unit.
It is in my opinion little bit unecessary to drain all coolants if you can wiggle the vanos unit around that coolant sensor.

If some else have fact about this coolant hose... you can answer too.. 8)
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You can lift the engine by undoing the main mounting nut and raising up to the top of the stud (about 25-30mm) which should just give enough room to remove the Vanos unit (or the water pump if this is the job being tackled) see my posting on water pump replacement 'Replacing Water Pump-No need to jack car up', which includes a photo of the mount and a scissors jack that I used to lift the engine. The engine lift was a 5 minute job this way and I did not need to remove any coolant hoses or the coolant sensor. The engine mount that has the best access, and the one I used, is the one on the right hand side as you face the car from the front.
 
I am not removing water pump. There is front of the vanos unit water hose sensor which in this case is the problem.

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So I got the car back today with the new Vanos rings fitted. Now, seeing as I've been driving the gf's Clio for a couple weeks its not so easy to appreciate how much is Vanos and how much is Z4 vs Clio in terms of improvement, however the lower end seems smoother when accelerating, and pulling away seems to have lost a slight hesitation / hiccup.

I have the old rings, to see how much they'd degraded. Visually without comparing like for like its hard to say, although they do look a little squared off. They did say it failed the 'turn the Vanos upside down' test as the pistons simply fell out rather than having some hold with the seals. The new seals obviously meant the pistons fit better and stayed in place afterwards, so while my transformation isn't night and day yet, a lot could be down to not doing a straight before after / test, I'd been in another car for a couple weeks in between.

Not had chance to do more than a couple miles on 30/40mph roads but car feels great, and great to be back in it.

Still, if having related work done, I'd say do it. Idle seems smoother, pull away seems smoother, peace of mind is in the bag. :thumbsup:
 
AnttiO said:
I am not removing water pump. There is front of the vanos unit water hose sensor which in this case is the problem.

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I think you need to disconnect that hose at the thermostat housing by the looks of it. I had it loose when I did mine, I don't know if that was vanos related (I did a lot of stuff at the same time back then).
A good time to refresh all the coolant.

But the most irritating part is to get the car on axle stands I think. You have to find a solid spot to jack up the car other than the rubber pads as I presume you want to place the jack stands on that spot. (I have a car lift, so that's different).
Be sure that the car is stable on the stands (maybe put some wheels under the car) before you crawl under the car. If the car slips of the stands or so......
 
This is just a small update for those on the fence.

Having done some more driving on the new Vanos seals, I can say that the car feels great and can readily identify where its improved;

1) The hesitation / hiccup that would appear when pulling away has gone. I thought this was more jerky throttle/clutch but appears it was vanos related, like it would pull away, slightly bog down then pull away, so was a little jerky sometimes. Gone.
2) Power delivery / torque is very smooth and now smoothly 'surges' very noticeably throughout the rev range but 2k onwards is very very smooth and rapid acceleration rather than press, wait for revs to build and torque to kick in.
3) Non-sport mode feels as urgent as sport mode, so sport mode is even more 'sporty'.
4) The idle is rock solid, no seeking at all. Used to twitch slightly at idle. (could be linked to cleaning ICV though)

:thumbsup:
 
Good work. I forgot to mention that bit, but I had a very minor idle twitch when in P or N, this disappeared after the Vanos work.

This is another benefit of doing this job, the idle is much better - quieter and certainly a few rpm lower with no hunting.
 
Oh and one other thing;

5) It now has more tendency to break traction on spirited launches in the dry, like it is better able to apply the torque at lowest rpm. Done it a couple times, at first thought I was being heavy footed but usually I'd really have to TRY to make it spin the wheels, now it needs more care not to. :evil:
 
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